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Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten New-To-Me Favorite Authors I Read For The First Time In 2016

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. They created the meme because they love lists. Who doesn’t love lists? They wanted to share these list with fellow book lovers and ask that we share in return to connect with our fellow book lovers. To learn more about participating in the challenge, stop by their page dedicated to it and dive in!

This week’s topic: Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read For The First Time In 2016

Mogsy’s Picks

How often have you said to yourself, “OMG! Why did it take me so long to read <insert author’s name>’s books?!” For me that feels like a very frequent occurrence which is why I love today’s topic – and why I’m also happy to be making another one of these lists, this time for 2016.

*** Note that I’m generally focusing on authors who have been writing for a long time, or already have a bunch of novels/short stories out, otherwise this would be a very long post! I also won’t be naming any debut authors today (because that is a top ten list for another day! 🙂 ) ***

It appears plenty of people are already aware of the awesomeness of A. Lee Martinez, and as usual I’m just way behind. I first heard of the author only earlier this year, when I saw the title and cover for The Last Adventure of Constance Verity. I read it, loved it, and I want more. The book was unexpectedly charismatic and offbeat, and I think of all the fantasy comedy novels I’ve tried this year, so far this is by far my favorite. This blogger will definitely be looking into picking up more books by Mr. Martinez! (Review: The Last Adventure of Constance Verity)

Jon Skovron is already quite a big name in the Young Adult fantasy world, having authored several novels for teens. His first adult fantasy series The Empire of Storms began this summer though, with Hope and Redwhich was my first experience with his work. I ended up really enjoying the world and the characters, and now I can’t wait to read the next book in the trilogy. I might even need to go back and pick up some of his previously released YA books. (Review: Hope and Red)

Yes, believe it or not, it actually took me this long to finally try Kelley Armstrong (despite the fact others have been telling me about how great she is for years). I also find it a little ironic that even though I’m more of a speculative fiction reader, it wasn’t any of her fantasy or paranormal books that finally caught my eye, but her newest mystery thriller/suspense novel City of the Lost. It was just fantastic, guys. Seriously couldn’t be more pleased that it was my very first KA novel. (Review: City of the Lost)

I’ve never read a Jack Ketchum novel before, and was completely unfamiliar with his work. A quick search on Goodreads brought me to his author bio which proudly proclaims that his first book Off Season was once scolded by the Village Voice for being “violent pornography”. Still don’t know if I’ll ever read Off Season (because it sounds too hardcore even for me!) but his latest novel The Secret Life of Soulsthat was co-authored with Lucky McKeeturned out to be pretty awesome. (Review: The Secret Life of Souls)

This year was the first time I read Jennifer Fallon, and interestingly, I hadn’t known that The Lyre Thief was a follow-up series until I read the blurbs for Medalonand the other books in her Hythrun Chronicles: Demon Child and Hythrun Chronicles: Wolfbladesequences. Fallon eases us into the world so gently and seamlessly though, I felt no disadvantage from not having read the previous series—and you know how picky I can be about such things. I loved the book so much, I’ve already added the previous trilogies to the TBR because I want to learn everything I can about this irresistible world and the characters. (Review: The Lyre Thief)

This was my first book by Keri Arthur, and I was completely unprepared for how good it was. I don’t even know why I was caught so flat-footed! After all, I know friends who have been fans of the author’s for a long time and they all absolutely adore her work, which is what convinced me to give City of Light a try in the first place. For ages I’ve been curious to try one of her books, and this being the first of a new series, I figured it would be the perfect place to start. I went in with pretty high expectations. It ended up exceeding all of them. (Review: City of Light)

Even though I’ve known about the author’s Wayward Pines series for years now, I’ve never read it nor have I watched the recent TV show adaptation based off of it. But if those books are anything like Dark Matter, which was my first foray into his work, I might just have to go check them out. I know I talk about this book a lot, but it really was a lot of fun. Will I be checking out more of his work in the future? Oh, you bet. Mr. Crouch has a new fan. (Review: Dark Matter)

Jason Arnopp is a scriptwriter with a background in journalism who has written for many films and authored a bunch of media tie-in novels including various official Doctor Who fiction. This year I read his new book The Last Days of Jack Sparksand loved the hell out of it. According to our interview he is currently working on his second novel for Orbit Books (unrelated to Jack Sparks) which is a standalone “supernatural thriller in a completely different way” – so thrilled to hear about his next project, I can’t wait! (Review: The Last Days of Jack Sparks)

My last pick is kind of a cheat because technically I am still working my way through this huge tome, The Found and the Lost. I’m deeply ashamed to admit I have not read the work of Ursula K. Le Guin before now, but that is being rectified as we speak. This is a collection of every published novella by the renowned American literature icon, and I am enjoying the stories a lot so far. Keep an eye out for my review later this month.

38 Comments on “Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten New-To-Me Favorite Authors I Read For The First Time In 2016”

I personally am no longer a fan of the tv show (having read the books, I was turned off about halfway through the show because of how it differs lol) but the books are so so awesome. I haven’t read Dark Matter just yet, but I HIGHLY recommend the Pines trilogy. So so much. If you ever get to read them, you HAVE to tell me what you think. It’s my fave :3

Dang, I hate it when the show goes a different way than the books and not in the way you like. It’s a different matter if the changes are good, but if they are bad, it can be so disappointing and frustrating. The Pines trilogy is definitely on my list though, I have the audiobooks which I can’t wait to listen to.

Maybe watching the show first could be a good idea. I actually watched the first 2 episodes before diving into the trilogy so I loved it at first. That may be the key. Then you can love the books but still enjoy the show lol

Not gonna lie tho, I was also a little upset that it went from a planned miniseries event to having a 2nd season. I have problems XDD

Can’t wait to hear what you think!! On the story & the audio. I hope it’s narrated well 😮

OOh nice! I was already a Keri Arthur fan myself! But I still need to read Jon’s book! I picked it up earlier this year but still haven’t gotten to it! Thought it sounded exciting! Glad you approved of it! Great picks!

What a wonderful list. I need to read City of the Lost but I have read her entire Women of the Otherworld series – except for one short story collection which is still on my TBR. I also want to read Dark Matter. I must be one of the last ones. I remember buying the A. Lee Martinez book after reading your review but haven’t read it yet either. I have read some of his books though and really enjoyed them.

That reaction (OMG! Why did it take me so long to read ’s books?!”) is exactly how I felt when I finished Victoria Schwab’s This Savage Song recently. Now I can’t wait to read more of her work, including her adult fantasy novels.

Ahhh, UKLG! So glad to hear you’re already enjoying the novella collection. 😀 I haven’t started it yet, but I’m hoping to next year.

Whew, just finished the UKLG collection – it’s huuuuuuge! It was very enjoyable, but I do think I need a break from her now, lol. The companion short story collection will have to wait, probably next year for me as well. 🙂

I love gory horror so I loved Jack Ketchum’s off season. If you’ve seen the film The Hills have eyes it gives you an idea of the plot except it’s set in a cabin/forest/cave setting. I love the Kelley Armstrong paranormal books but haven’t read the one you mentioned.

Hmm, yeah, I’m not so much into gory horror (I read it, but I don’t like it as much as say, psychological horror or horror that depends more on atmosphere to scare you) but cool, now that I know what kind of book it is, maybe! 🙂

Keri Arthur is one of the authors I will have to read one of these days… months… years… (((insert sigh))). It was your review of “City of Light” that prompted me to pay attention, and I still hope to be able to discover her writing soon 🙂

Other than Armstrong, I haven’t read any of these^^ I spent 2016 reading through my backlist books which included very few new authors (unfortunately) I do love Armstrong though and you’ve reminded me that she has TONS of books I still need to read!

I want to read a couple of books on this lists! If that makes you feel better, I still haven’t read any Le Guin haha, I really want to (I am really interested by The Left Hand of Darkness) but I always manage to distract myself with new books!

I started doing this TTT and I realized many of the new to me authors I wanted to mention turned out to be on my top ten best books of the year list, so I decided to scrap it, I didn’t want two lists that were almost the same! I’m really anxious to read Hope and Red and The Lyre Thief. Awesome list!

I think there will be a few overlaps on my final best of the year list too, but mostly I will also be featuring a lot of books not mentioned. Yeah, I read too damn much, lol (or is such a thing possible? 😉 )

Yes, thank you so much for recommending City of the Lost (it was your review that finally drove me to try it, and wooooo, I loved it!) Can’t wait for Darkness Absolute either, but I’m in the same boat as you, still a few more books to read first 🙂

I so agree about Kelley Armstrong- same thing. All the UF she has out and I started with a thriller- but I loved it! And can’t wait for the sequel. And dark Matter I can’t WAIT to read- I liked his Wayward books and I’ve heard some amazing things about Dark Matter.

Keri Arthur I need to try, and I’ve only read one Ursula K LeGuin book but I enjoyed a lot.

Yeah, isn’t that funny? I know her more for her UF too, but I don’t know, City of the Lost somehow just spoke to me. I love the description of the wild and isolated setting, I think that’s what finally did it 🙂 And I’m so glad, I loved that book!

Kelley Armstrong is an author I’ve had on my radar fro a couple of years but haven’t managed to pick up. Good to know she will probably impress when I do get to her! I’m also very intrigued by A.Lee Martinez who I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never heard of!

It’s okay, I never heard of A. Lee Martinez either, until I featured the book on a stacking the shelves post and folks chimed in on how much they liked his work! I was like, looks like I’ve been missing out! 😀

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Welcome to The BiblioSanctum! A Book Blog for Speculative Fiction, Graphic Novels... and more! Steff (Mogsy), Tiara and Wendy are proud moms, geeks, gamers and bibliophiles. We're always reading and yet, there never seem to be enough books! Our Goodreads lists are an eclectic assortment of genres -- and we love to share our thoughts. The BiblioSanctum is a home for our absolute love of reading.